The wait is finally over, Xiaomi has finally decided to release the Redmi Note 5, wait!!! I heard its called the Redmi 5? No kidding?? There was a name change? Well yes folks, the 2 new Redmi Note sized phones are named Redmi 5 for the 5.7" and Redmi 5 Plus for the 5.99". What will happen to the successor of the Redmi 4X which is supposed to be a 5" Redmi 5? No one knows, but as of the moment, Xiaomi has decided to drop the Note name on their 5.7" sized budget phones. It has been quite a year and 3 months in the waiting for all of us Redmi fans from all over the world, and now we are going to unbox in front of your eyes the Redmi 5, the successor of the highly popular Redmi Note 4X. For my review of the Redmi 5 Plus, check it here.

The Redmi 5 has revamped its design in front, tho it has inherited resemblance from the Redmi Note 4X for the backside , the front was definitely the game changer, it was patterned together with the Redmi 5 Plus. As phones are now starting to go bezeless, thanks to Philippe Starck and his team who invented the concept phone Mi MIX, and now everyone wants to follow, even Iphone X (please dont deny this Apple, Xiaomi went ahead first this time). It was about the right timing that Redmi Series join in the bezeless craze, so that everyone can enjoy the bezeless goodness at a budgeted price. Im quite impressed with the sides as it was pretty slim and thin while the top and bottom was way smaller compared to the Redmi Note 4X, tho the lower portion can still accomodate the capacitive buttons, Xiaomi opted to put it on the screen.

The top edge of the Redmi 5 has quite a resemblance of that from the Redmi Note 5A but of course this one looks a lot more sturdier. The curved edge looks very sexy and it runs seamlessly as it connects to the body of the phone. The metal back battery cover is pretty much the same brushed aluminum material being used in Redmi Note 4X, it is easy to grip on it and does not feel slippery.

Design of Xiaomi will always be simple yet elegant, we have the IR Blaster, voice cancellation mic and 3.5mm audio jack on top ( glad they did not follow Mi 6 and took away the life of the audiophiles.)

On the right sports the volume rocker and the power button. On the left lies the sim card tray which you can use dual sim or single sim with micro sd expansion up to 64GB. Sim 1 is nano sim size and sim 2 is also nano sim size.

Down there we can see the micro usb charging slot (why Xiaomi why cant you integrate USB C?) and the loudspeaker (remember just one side is the loudspeaker, the other side is Mic).

Up front we have the 5MP selfie camera together with the front camera flash and the white notification LED. There is no longer capacitive touch buttons at the bottom, everything is on the screen just like the Mi MIX 2.

At the back sports the Mi Logo, Finger print scanner, the 12MP Camera with its dual tone LED flash. The camera is embossed and you should take note of it not to let it lie flat on the table, otherwise the camera lens will be the first to get scratched.

Snapdragon 450

We were able to fully test the power of this unit to the extent, running games and multitask, in my opinion this unit did a pretty good job in multitasking, as well as playing some basic games, we played NBA2k18 and it was not really 100% lag free, there were some portion of the game that we felt some lags, probably this was the 2GB version, problably the 3GB version would render it better. Playing graphics hungry games on this one is not really that reliable. Surfing, Chatting, Calls and Navigating were all done at the same time and it was quite stable not seeing the unit clamp down due to too many task being done at the same time.

AnTuTu gave a score of 55,353 points to the Redmi 5 2GB RAM 16GB Variant, this is quite a leap from the Snapdragon 435 in Redmi 4X that notched a score of 42,415 points in our previous review.

For the first time, this is the very first Xiaomi device that ships with MIUI 9 out of the box, we were all anticipating back then that the MI MIX 2 or Mi Note 3 would probably get that distinction as the first to get MIUI 9, but instead it was awared to Redmi 5 and Redmi 5 Plus. It comes with MIUI 9.1 and the experience running a lightning fast MIUI 9 on the Redmi 5 was pretty fast and quick.

Connectivity

The Redmi 5 supports 10 different LTE bands, it's easy to switch to LTE network inside the settings but once your do the second sim will be running on GSM connectivity only. You can freely choose which sim you want to use your LTE data, since this is a Dual LTE, Dual standby smartphone. We have experienced no problem surfing using LTE or 3G in our home country in the Philippines as well as dual standby mode is working seamlessly. Wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac is also smooth and it also supports Wi-Fi Direct. Wireless screen mirroring is also available via the Miracast protocol, tethering data is also working perfectly. Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, and GLONASS are all present and working pretty good. We also have a smooth navigation using Google Maps while cruisin in the city using the Redmi 5.

Here are the supported bandwidth by the Redmi 5 Plus based from the official website

We watched some movies on our Redmi 5 and it was a good experience, honestly we didnt feel the difference between Full HD+ on Redmi 5 Plus compared to the HD+ in the Redmi 5. It was a good movie time as me and my friends came over to watched a movie with me.

Camera

One of the main highlight for every smartphone release is its camera, people will ask whats the improvement on the camera. Everyone loves to take photos, especially selfies. The camera sensors is the Chinese OV brand and they have been suppling a lot to the budgeted lines in Xiaomi. The quality on this cam is great but of course you cannot expect too much from this unit.

The camera takes good photos in daylight and in low light areas it has improved from Redmi Note 4X, its best performance is outdoors, taking crisp and great photos. Still there is room for improvement for pictures taken in dim areas, but of course it's a Redmi Series, we cant argue to much due to its market segmentation being in the midrange series.

The manual mode from the camera, is quite disappointing, it only sported the White Balance and ISO controls. The Focus and Exposure Time is nowhere to be found.

The camera sensors are confirmed to be made by Omnivision as per CIT Engineering Mode.

Photo Gallery (Unedited Photos)

Selfie Camera

Battery Performance

We were able to achieve a good battery rating for this unit since its a Snapdragon (Qualcomm is known for their battery efficiency), we lasted a day on normal usage without hitting the charging port or power bank. PC Mark Battery Stress Test gave it a rating of 18 Hours and 22 Minutes.

Other Benchmarks

Conclusion

After playing around with the Redmi 5, its comes down to my final verdict, was it a worthy upgrade from Redmi Note 4X? Well, I can tell you its a good upgrade, except for the processor which was nerfed down to the Redmi 4X level processor. Im not sure what is Xiaomi thinking but having a 5.7 inch phone not sporting the SD 625 would probably be the downside of this phone, everything else I give it a thumbs up. If you are planning to have a smartphone which is a little more powerful than this one, probably Redmi Note 4X would still be your best bet. But if you want to be part of the bezeless craze, then this one is definitely for you.